Why New York Made Him Unbreakable With Chef Juvon

Hearing Chef Juvon's story reminded me of how I felt watching the Movie Forest Gump, amazed at how many things he has experience and accomplished in life.  What a journey he has been on.  

One minute Chef Javon is talking Brooklyn blocks and New York toughness, the next he’s walking us through dialysis needles, Mount Sinai transplant calls at 2am, and what it really takes to rebuild a life from scratch in Florida. His story is bigger than “New Yorker moved to Florida” it’s about survival, reinvention, and the strange way a career can zigzag from music to medicine to the chef world without losing its purpose.  

He share's what it was like for him having to experience dialysis while waiting on a kidney and how God has guided his path while his faith followed through to his restoration and he gives God all the glory!  

Follow Chef Juvon on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/chefjuvon?igsh=MWt1aWJ6cnpuM2J3Yg==

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https://www.instagram.com/elevatedeatsbychefjuvon?igsh=MWFydXBneTVvYWc2Mg==

Elevated Eats

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As discussed on the show: Our Legacy 

https://www.ourlegacyfl.org/

Transcript

Welcome To From Apple To Oranges

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Besitos to you, I'm your host, Lizette Perez. From Apple to Oranges is a podcast about the New Yorkers that now live in Florida. Real stories, real people, real moments happening in both New York and in Florida. And who knows, maybe one day you'll be a guest on the show too. Because one thing I learned over the years is that when I meet another New Yorker, we can't seem to stop talking about it. And this podcast is gonna get down to all the reasons why. My guest today is Chef Javon. He is from Brooklyn. He's now been in Florida, what, eight years? Eight years. Eight years. He's a chef, as I said, and he is a kidney transplant survivor. How many years?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

17 years.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Wow, we're gonna talk about that during the show, but I want to know first, what part of Brooklyn are you claiming today?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I guess I'll say Rutland, which is not a known area unless you know the area, but yeah, Rutland.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Okay, I've never heard of it. But you know, I was raised in the Bronx and I moved here young, so that you know, I I get a pass, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I lived in the Bronx too. You did? Where rap? I grew up called Wakefield. It's the borderline of Yonkers in Mal Vernon, 241st, last stop on the two train. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

So you got some Bronx in you too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Growing Up Tough In New York

SPEAKER_02 1:14

What's it growing up in Brooklyn or in the Bronx? What did it teach you that you still carry today?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yo, let me tell you, just a real quick story. I was living in the Bronx at this time as a young lad, and I was cutting school to go meet a girl, and you just know not to go to Brooklyn. Because people was like, yo, don't go to Brooklyn. Brooklyn is crazy. Yo, don't go to Brooklyn. So I'm a kid and I'm on the train. And then I get out of the train. I'm scared. I'm like, somebody's gonna cut me. Uh oh, I get on the bus. I'm scared. I'm in Brooklyn. Oh my God. What's gonna happen to me? Go meet the girl. You know, we do our thing. I'm still scared. Like it was nothing. But anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

It was no different than being in the Bronx.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Seriously. But back to your question. You said what did it teach you?

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Like, yeah. Like what did you get out of growing up in New York? I would just say you still carry today.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

I would just say, if I was able to answer it this way, if you can't make it in New York, you can't make it nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

You just can't. Whether it's driving, whether it's paying bills, or just people bumping it to you on 42nd. I mean, you know, you're tough.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah, it makes us stronger.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

It makes us stronger, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Definitely. So, food-wise, I want to know what was your go-to spot in the city if you had one. What what did you love growing up there? Like, what did you eat there?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

You know, there was this Thai restaurant I used to go to. Man, I wish I knew the address. I just knew it was on 11th Avenue, not too far from Daddy's house.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

What's Daddy's house?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Should I should I even ask again? Daddy's house. It sounds familiar, but I'm drawing a blank. It kind of sounds like a particular type of like a particular. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

It's a recording, recording studio, Bad Boy Entertainment.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

It came back to me now. Okay, daddy.

Boys Choir To Bad Boy Studios

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I used to work for Bad Boys.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

I saw the documentary. Now I remember.

unknown 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

So you worked there. Hold up. Now we got influence. That's a whole other story. No, that's the story we can tell real quick. That's part of your New York story. So now I want to hear it. It took me a second for it to register. But yes, Daddy's house. Oh my gosh. Okay, you work there.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah. Let me take it back a little bit further.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

I love how you threw it into like Sorry. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. These are the stories that need to be revealed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Let me take it back a little bit just a little bit earlier. Okay. High school. Yes. I went to the Boys Choir of Harlem.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

You ever heard of him?

SPEAKER_02 3:44

No.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

The Boys Choir.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

I mean, maybe, but just like I forgot Daddy's house, you know, I'm getting older.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Boys Choir Harlem is a very famous choir. Okay. Boys, of course. And we traveled the world, you name it in inaugurations, shows, movies, soundtracks. Like we sing opera, jazz, gospel, whatever it is, different languages.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yes, you have a beautiful voice.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Oh, to go be the girl.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

I've heard your voice before. Because I know you've, at least with your catering portion of your business, you will sing happy birthday to those. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yes, I will.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

But go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

So that's what got me into the music industry. Being in the boys choir introduced me to meeting, you know, very elite people. And I used that to carry the co-train. And I got into the music business. I did uh music production, pre-production for Bad Boy Entertainment. Um, I was an AR in artist development for Bad Boy, AR for uh Fat Talent Records. And I was just doing everything. I was doing modeling, I was singing, I was coaching, I did all vocal arrangements, vocal producing. I just did so much things in the music. Uh the remember the Black Expo?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

I was a stage manager for the Black Expo. I just did so much things. And that's how I got to work in that.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Yo, I am so trying to hold back like laughter. I don't know why I want to laugh, but it was kind of like the last thing I expected to hear today. You worked that bad boy.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, it's an old story.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Let me just close the back door. Okay. I did not work with Puff Daddy. Okay. I did not go to any of the parties. That's those parties are for the elite. Okay. Those parties are that's for a certain crowd. That's not.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Did you know of anything like that back then? Okay. Nah. So you can't confirm or deny.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Okay. I just I knew about parties, but I didn't know what was going on at the parties. We knew about parties. No, it's not alleged anymore. It's not allegedly.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

No, what am I saying?

SPEAKER_00 5:31

No, it happened. Yeah, it happened. The modern Epstein. But anyway, then that's how I got into the music business. Yeah. I used to go to like certain clubs, um, stage, what was that? Stage 40. What was that club? But I used to go to clubs, you know, as an AR. And it was like prestige to throw my card out, you know, and they would just throw out tables for me when there was no more tables. They put me a table in the front. If there was a show. Yeah. Just when there were shows going on, because I'm an AR. So I'm coming in to scout for talent. And it was just like.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

And for those who don't know, who are listening and don't know what an AR is.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Oh, artists in development. We we find talent, sign them, stuff like that, and develop them, stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, man. That was that was that was like VIP right there. I like that treatment. Wow. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. The ladies. Oh. Anyway, amen. That's another lifetime.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

You're like, amen, I've changed.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

See, see, I'm I'm I'm the I'm a new person now.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, so now wow, I learned something really new about you. I've known you a few years. I know your Florida life. I just didn't know New York. A lot of people don't know that life. New York life.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

A lot of people don't know that

Burnout In New York And Moving South

SPEAKER_00 6:35

life.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Wow, so let me ask you, um, you moved here eight years ago. Tell me why you came to Florida. Or is there still stuff about New York that you need to tell us that led you here?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

I tell you, very briefly, New York, I was an ER technician at Mount Sinai Hospital, uh, the one that's on 98th Street. And I was there working in an emergency room for five years. And I'm be honest with you, I was almost tired of living in New York. I'll be no, I'll be more honest. At a point in time, I was just almost tired of living. Seriously.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

And there was a point in time I remember very vividly I thought about taking my life.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Really?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Because I was just tired. The bills, the money, I was almost getting evicted. I was almost tired.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

So So this was after the whole AR thing? Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Okay. Yeah, this is close to me moving out. This is close to me moving out.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

So you were just talking about living it up.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

I was living it up. But see, let me, let me, I'll, I'll go, let's go deeper.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

I was living it up, but behind the scenes, it was hard. It was it's easy to funt and front. It really is. What vehicle was I driving? I was driving a Hummer, so I felt good. It was in the Mercedes-Benz, but it's a freaking Hummer. Not many people driving a Hummer. You know, can I afford it? I was making it work. I was doing a lot of overtime. I was trying to work out with Bad Boy. I was working at another record label. We was trying to do something that was what's hot in hip-hop. What's hot and hip hop is another media company that I was transitioning to. But let's keep it real. It's hard living in New York. The bills, the taxes, they freaking take out MTA taxes out their check. What are they taking out MTA for? I don't ride the MTA. MTA is a private entity. Why are you taking money out of my check to go to MTA? I didn't sign for that. That's just New York. But speedy back up to here, when I got terminated from Mount Sinai Hospital, but because I'm in a union and I'm vested, my union fought for me not to get terminated for me to resign. So they worked it out. I resigned. I was like, you know what? I'm ready for a whole new start. Honestly, I was tired of living in New York. I just wanted to start all over. I wish I could just leave my social security card behind too and not follow. And so I was dating somebody and she was moving to Florida. And I'm like, why were you dating? We know we talk about future, you know? And one day she up and went to Florida without me, of course. She's just going on her vacation. She came back with some booklets and pamphlets of this house she's gonna get built. I'm like, damn.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Do I gonna say so? What I mean is she was moving forward with purchasing a house, having it built. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

And she made that decision for the both of you? No, for her. For her. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Her and her daughter. Okay. And I prayed about it. I'm not gonna just up and go, not for no female. I gotta pray about this. She moved. I had faith that I was gonna move to Florida. But I wasn't just gonna go to move to Florida just because after her. When I say that, I pack my stuff up too. And I put it in the same part that she used to bring her stuff down. And uh long story short, I prayed about it, prayed about it. I moved out of New York, I moved to Pennsylvania, stayed with my mom's, and I still traveled to New York, Mount Sinai. It's a good drive. Two hour one way. That's a whole nother story, too. I stayed in, sometimes I stayed in the closets at the hospital, sometimes I stayed in vacant rooms. The the uh administrator was, we was cool, so she would help me stay because she knew I lived far, just to save on gas and stuff. But anyway, long story short, I stopped working at Mount Sinai because I resigned. Then I got a job in at another hospital in Pennsylvania, I forgot the name of it. I worked in the operating room, which was pretty cool. I knew I was transitioning, I was just waiting. They didn't know that. I didn't let them know that, of course. Yeah, but so I was an anesthesiologist technician. I assist I assisted patients to sleep.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

You are blowing my mind today, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

It was boring. Really? The the the the dope side of working in the OR was seeing the procedures like, oh my god, like wow, rather than seeing it on TV or YouTube. It was like, I've seen bad procedures like you won't be able to see. And it wasn't fun, it was really boring because I'm used to the ER. I'm used to the adrenaline, saving lives, you know, whatever we gotta do to save somebody's life, right? So I was like, I'm bored. I went downstairs to the ER in the same hospital. I was like, can I get a job here? It didn't happen. And I finally heard from Florida Hospital, because then it was Florida Hospital, now Aven Health. The director of the emergency room called me. He was like, Yeah, we'd like to hire you. And I was like, yo, I'm thinking I'm gonna get paid good because of my experience. That's what most people think. We coming from New York, we come with experience. Yeah, like we need to get paid top dollar when we get here.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Yeah, and y'all get taught top tier. You get taught in a whole nother level. A whole nother level is required to learn. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

But guess what? No, I didn't get paid top dollar. I actually got demoted and paid.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Ugh, yeah. They like to do that. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

So I became a nurse technician here.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

You said that with a face that dropped. Yo. You look so bored when you said that already.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

It was not the same. New York, you coming into the emergency room, you got like 30 patients. Everybody's sick. You know how it is. They in the hallway. There's no such thing as a room in the emergency room. Come here, you got three, four patients. And I'm not gonna go further down to it because I don't know what I'm legally able to say and not say, but say whatever you need to say. The healthcare here sucks. And what did it for me is when I saw doctors debating on who has the next patient because they already met their quarter for the day.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Oof.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

I was like, that's not what I'm in this business for. I'm here to help save lives. I felt like I was a slave, honestly. Taking patients back, other nurses didn't like me because I was very friendly with patients, very playful with kids. People don't like me. I'm used to that. I'm not here to please people. But anyway,

Healthcare Culture Shock And Career Pivot

SPEAKER_00 12:11

get to my point. Stop working there. A door opened up. I got a job at the Grand Bohemian Hotel. Because I said to God, I said, God, I'm tired. I wasn't just physically tired, like my back was hurting a lot for moving patients, but I was tired of the health field. That's not what I want to do anymore. And so the door opened up. I saw online that the Grand Bohemian was hiring, and I have no restaurant experience. No, I have some restaurant experience, but no hotel restaurant experience. That's a different level.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah, hospitality.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. To have this French big guy interviewing me, very um, very intimidating. And what was his French accent and so, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Oh, he was the real deal.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

You know, he's a real deal. So I showed him my pictures and you know, my workspiece for itself, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

What was you cooking at that time?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

At that time, I was really, I was like, I was hustling doctors and nurses trying to get them to buy into my meal prep. I was really trying to get out there, you know, because nobody knew me here at all. And so it wasn't nothing extravagant what I'm doing now. It was just, you know, oxtails, rice and peas. And yeah, yeah, no coos coots, and you know, just simple stuff. He hired me. I was like, they want me? A four four-star hotel? Little old me?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I don't know. I I I guess I jumped from your question, but no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

This is this is your story, okay? You here to tell your story.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

So that's that's that's where I I said, this is what I want to do. I want to be a fine dining chef. To be able to express myself on a plate, on a canvas, it was sexy. I felt good. And a lot of people ask me, how did you go from nursing to cooking?

SPEAKER_02 13:40

You left out the A and R part. How did you go from working at that's true, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Here's the similarities though. I'm still helping people, I'm still educating people. So I'm I am still saving lives somewhat, just in a different capacity. I'm a people person, so both jobs as people person, you know. But yeah, that's that's that's that.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

I want to jump back to really quick Mount Sinai because is there more than one Mount Sinai?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Now it is. That's why I pinpointed 98th Street.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah, because I was born at one of them. I don't know which one.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

The only one was the one in Midtown, 98th Street. Now they bought over different hospitals of Israel and some downtown, some uptown, some in Queens. Yeah, they bought them out.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

You know what's funny? Sidetracking for a second. When I was pregnant with my daughter Melinda, I took a trip to New York and I was pretty pregnant. I wasn't that pregnant, but it was pregnant enough to where I'm like, okay, I don't know if I can handle walking around the whole city, but I wanted to see the city, and I did one of those double decored tour buses.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

That was the first time driving on that little tour bus. Yes, I get touristy sometimes when I go back home. But I was pregnant that time, so that's why I did it. But on that tour bus was the first time I laid eyes on the hospital. I never knew because you know I lived in the Bronx. We didn't go to the city that much. Right, right. But yeah, they took me home from Manhattan, and that was it. But that was the first time. I was like, that's where I was born on, because the little tour guide was.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a big hospital.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah, that's yeah, very known hospital. Yeah, very famous.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Which is where I got my transplant at.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Okay, so let's talk about that.

Kidney Failure Diagnosis And Dialysis Reality

SPEAKER_02 15:06

You were living in New York when you had your transplant.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

I already know a little bit from what you told me. Please share. Like the moment you got the news, like what was it that your kidney was failing? I mean, what did you have another illness or a diagnosis?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

It wasn't failing, it failed.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Really?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I'll take you back. 18 years old, I was in military school. After graduating high school, I went straight to military school to get prepared for the military. I wanted to go into the Navy. So while in military school, it's called Camp Smith, which is in Cortland Manor, upstate New York. I was there on this base and preparing, and I went to MEPS, which is the military doctors, they examine you to see if you're fit for the military, medically speaking. And so this is where most people get disqualified. It used to be for flat feet. Like a lot of people say, Oh, I have flat feet, I get disqualified. Really? Yeah. Wow, okay. So being that I was in a military program already, I guess they didn't really examine my feet because I do got flat feet. So when I urinated in a cup, I'll use the medical terminology. When I voided in the cup, they said basically that I had too much protein in my urine. And I'm 18 years old. I don't know what the hell that means. I just know protein, you need that for your body to reproduce tissue and muscle. And so when they said that, I was like, okay, that's good, right? You know, too much protein.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

All right. But I need for this job.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

You know what I'm saying? They was like, no, when it's overspilling into the urine, that means your the gramolites, they didn't say this, but this is my education. The gramulites, the filters in your kidney are not functioning. So a crew the recruiter and the doctors there spoke. They said, All right, let's take them back, let's go on a fast, like a week fast, and it was just fast from protein, see if that would resolve anything. It didn't. We went back to MEPS and that, which is in Albany, and they said, Something's wrong with my kidneys. And got back to my mother. It was advised to my mother to take me to my own doctor, and we did that. And my doctor said, Yeah, something's going on with your kidneys. You need to see a kidney specialist. Again, I'm 18 years old. It went in one ear and out the other. Because I wasn't experiencing any symptoms, you know, to me, it's just like, I ain't, I'm not experiencing nothing. So the doctor said, You gotta drink a lot more water. I'm like, Water? Who drinks water? There's no flavor. That's that was my attitude. Like, I'm not drinking water. That's disgusting. It has no flavor.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

At 18, you're not thinking about your health like that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

So right. So I say that to say it could have been court, right? Burst my bubble, like you was telling me earlier. The military's like, that's what I wanted to do. That like I wanted to become a cook in the military. That was my bubble that was popped, and I was crying like, what else am I gonna do with my life? I can't go into the military. Plus, being a military brat, this is what I knew, the military. So I had to cope with that. And two years later, I'm working at American Girl downtown on 59th Street, I believe. And you know, so I'm on my feet walking back and forth with dolls and stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

It's Christmas time, it's very busy. I'm sick. I thought I had the flu. That's what I thought. Never had the flu before, but I'm I'm thinking I have the flu because I'm really sick. Something is wrong with me.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

What were you feeling?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Just all the flu stuff. All the same worst. Okay. Very fatigued. When I when I stand up to brush my teeth in the morning, I be sweating. I couldn't even stand. I had to sit on the toilet to brush my teeth. Throwing up blood every single morning, like clockwork in the train station. When I got to the train station to go to work, I was throwing up blood every day. And when I look over to my right, there was this awful smell coming out my mouth. And so, like anybody else, I thought I was sick. So, like any other man, I didn't go to the hospital. I'm eating oatmeal. I'm drinking orange juice. I'm killing myself slowly. And I didn't know it because I don't know nothing about kidneys or whatever. Why I say I was killing myself is because those particular things, I was drinking orange juice, bananas, those things are high in potassium. And kidney patients cannot eat high potassium food. So I was killing myself more. And so one day, it was December 15th or the 17th. It rings a bell in my head. I gotta go to the hospital. I went to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and they diagnosed me with end-stage renal disease. And I'm like, okay, all right, give me saline, give me a band-aid, medications, whatever you gotta do so I can go back to work. That is when I hit rock bottom. I couldn't pay my rent. I was living in Queens at this time. That's why I went back to Queens. I went like the landlord was threatening to kick me out. He was already showing apartments to people while I was staying there. I couldn't pay my rent because I lost my job. And it's hard. I was doing now I'm experiencing a whole new life doing dialysis. What the hell is dialysis? I had to expect I had to educate myself. What is going on? They said any day I would have been dead. Any day, because it was the end stage. I was done. The kidneys were so far gone, they shrunk like raisins, they said. That's why they couldn't do a biopsy.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

So, what is it about the kidneys that that that just happened? To me, it sounds like it happened out the blue.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

It didn't happen out of the blue.

unknown 19:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

That's why I started it back from military school. It was something I could have avoided. Something was going on in the early stages and I didn't listen. You know those commercials that come on, they're lawyer commercials, and they're like, if you was taking such and you experienced this, this, this, this kidney failure, heart attack. And I was like, it was a medicine. It was a medicine commercial. These are the side effects. I was taking Celebrex and Betrix, which is still in the market. They just came out. I got it from a doctor that gave it to me, gave me a bag of samples, a whole bunch of them. He said, try this. No in the market is a great painkiller. I was experiencing migraines at this time. I don't know why I was getting migraines, but it was longevity. So I was taking this medicine for a long time. And so when I seen that commercial, I was like, that's probably why my kidneys failed. Not to mention, when I was a baby, I had bladder issues. They told my mother I wasn't gonna grow to be a teenager. I don't tell that part of the story too much, but it just goes to show the devil's a liar. Anyway, to God be the glory. So I'm here. Like, we tried suing the doctor, not the medicine. There was already a Class Act lawsuit on the medicine. So the lawyer said, no, we're not gonna sue the medicine because you're only gonna get $10, $20. So we try suing the doctors. Lo and behold, doctors don't testify against doctors. They just don't. Even if you pay them underneath the table to testify, they won't. Unless it's obviously malpractice, Michael Jackson, something like that, you know? So we lost that. Judge threw it out. God knows best because we used someone for like 10 million. I always say that if I had won that money, I probably wouldn't even know who God is. As young as I was, I would have been like the king on earth. You know what I mean? God knows best. God knew that I couldn't handle no $10 million. So I got to know God through trials and tribulations. I had to lose something, a part of me, to get to know who he was or acknowledge who he is.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Well, you found God in New York through that experience. Yep. Carried in throughout the rest of your life with your journey here in Florida. Yes. You know, it's funny because they do say you understand life looking backwards, which I know in my experiences I have. Definitely I could see that you do in yours. What was it like after you got your transplant? Tell me about that part of the story. Like when you finally got that news. How long were you getting dialysis?

SPEAKER_00 21:46

I was on dialysis for five years.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

That's a very long time.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

It's a very long time to see people dying in front of you, next to you. People die on that machine. Do you know why people die on that machine? No. People die on dialysis because dialysis is a machine. That pulls against your natural flow of your heart. Your heart does lub dub, lub dub, lub dub automatically. That's how God designed it. Now the machine is pulling against that. It's like playing tuggle war. So if your heart is not healthy while on dialysis, your heart will give up. Wow. That's the long story short.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

When you're actually getting the dialysis, I mean, that's incredible. I had no clue about that. But what are they giving you? Or what are like what's happening? I mean, you kind of explained it, but I feel like I'm missing something.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're in dialysis is because you don't have no kidneys or your kidneys are not functioning to 100% function, right? The machine has a dialyzer on it, which is a filter. So I have a fistula right here. I'll let you fill it later. They created this fistula or they have other ways of doing it, but they created that because if they stick these giant needles on you, 16 gauge, that's a very big needle, it burns when it goes in like a blowtorch. No lie. I have to numb it to get these needles, right? Some people can take it because you get used to it. These big needles, they go into your fistula or your graft, or they connect you to a port of cortical permacaf, which I had, and then I had one in my neck for the emergency dialysis, it goes into your artery. What they do is they they fuse your artery and a regular vein together to create a powerful blood flow. They can't do it with a regular vein because your regular veins are small and it'll collapse from the machine. So once you get connected to the machine, I'm trying to remember the terminology, you have your AV fistular, I forgot the other one, but it goes in and out. What happens is the machine pulls your blood out of your body, goes into a dialyzer, it filters it. Kidneys is what feeds your body nutrients, filters out and filters in what your body needs. So the machine is doing it now. And it's it's amazing. Like it really is. You would look at the waste, it just looks like soap suds. Wow. That's what it looks like. Dirty soap suds. But it's still white though. It's a lot of nutrients. That's what it is. If you don't have kidneys, if you don't do dialysis, your body fills up with waste and you would die. Wow. Like you would just die. Your kidneys is what help regulate a blood pressure. Without kidneys, your blood pressure won't have a good pressure. It'll go out of whack. It's like a trickle effect. But anyway, so the machine filters your blood and it enters it back in. During that process, there's a chemical process, chemical change process happening to your body. The first time it happened, my body went cold, it went hot. I started shaking because I didn't know what the hell was going on. But it's a chemical process that your body goes through. Does it happen every day on dialysis? No. What happens is a lot of people get, you know what a Charlie horse is?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

A lot of people get Charlie horses while they're on the machine. Wow. Can you imagine being on the machine? You can't move because you have these tubes connected to you through needles and you get a Charlie horse. So you scream out, they come running over, they put fluid back in you. And what's happening while you're getting a Charlie horse is because your muscles is looking for fluid. And because it's being pulled away, the fluid, the muscles is cramping because there's no fluid. Your body's made up of mostly water, right? I'm sounding like a scientist, right? I'm still Chef Chavon, y'all. Um, but I'm educated though. And so that's why you get a Charlie house. So anyway, long story short.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

No, I appreciate you sharing that. You know, I'm a medical mom. I have shared, at least in my first episode, about my twins uh having special needs. They have cerebral palsy. Okay. You know, at birth, Mia was 15 ounces. 15 ounces.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

15 ounces.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

She's a miracle baby, you know. And because of that, she is my medical baby out of the twins. Maya, she can uh scoot around, you know, she could get in and out of her wheelchair, she could do some things for herself. She talks. Mia doesn't talk. My daughter Mia is non-ambulatory, so she needs to be put in any position we gotta put her in her. She's nonverbal.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

You know, but she's she was in and out of the hospital for years. So I know the medical world in that aspect. Like 2024 was the first year, they're 16 now, 2017 this summer. 2024 was the first year she had not seen the ER not once, and that was the first time ever. She's in and out the hospital three, four times a year, at least up until then. Yeah, the medical world is real stressful, and it's a lot to go through. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

And you gotta educate yourself.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

You do.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

The doctors are not there to educate you.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

No, and they're not there to give you hope. No, they do not give you hope. Like I learned after a while that they give you all the bad news first. And you know that that made it stressful, you know. So hearing you right now, I'm kind of going through a little bit of PTSD in a way. But it's important to talk about because, you know, there's people out there that is probably going through dialysis now that's gonna hear your story and hear after five years, you finally got a kidney. What was that like? Like, how, like, how did

The Transplant List And New Life

SPEAKER_02 26:30

that happen?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Let me tell you being on a transplant list is a process. You don't just get put on a transplant list.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Oh, you don't.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Just because you need an organ, whether it's your kidney, your lungs, your heart, whatever, fecal matter, it doesn't matter. You do not automatically give it a transplant list.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

So when you get that diagnosis and you learn, no, you just put me on. No, you can't do that. No, okay, so how the heck?

SPEAKER_00 26:52

You you have to be a good candidate. Okay. I say that because, okay, you go through the process, right? You're doing dialysis, you're not missing any treatments, you're not cutting your treatments.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

But you still gotta check all the boxes, you still gotta qualify.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yes. And now, okay, he looks like a good candidate. He looked like he's gonna take care of himself.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Oh my gosh. That's what it is. So you could get discriminated if you're overwhelmed. Yes, what?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Yes, there are over a hundred thousand people on a transplant list. A hundred thousand people, right? But but look at it this way, though. Seriously, let's let's be honest and let's keep it real. If you smoke, you're cutting your treatment, or you miss your treatments. Do you care about yourself? Why, why, why give you a someone else's organ when somebody else can earn not earn it, but but you you look at the facts, right? Do you really care about yourself if you're smoking and cutting your treatment? Why should I give you a transplant? You know, you're gonna kill yourself.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

So now that you've had a transplant, you can agree with that assessment.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

I agree. Okay. Even before I got my transplant, I understand. Yeah, yeah. Because I there are times where I want to cut my treatments. I see people come on, oh, just give me two hours. You don't need two hours, ain't doing much of a treatment. Three to five hours, that's a treatment for dialysis. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

That's a long time. Three times a week. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Three times a week. Yeah. And let me tell you this something I learned. Because I didn't know nothing about this, right? Renal failure has no age restriction. It has no race restriction. It has no sex restriction. I said that to say there are babies on dialysis too. There are kids on dialysis.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

I believe it, because my daughter has been through so much. My daughter has received medications that were as strong as chemo, you know, just a lot. I mean, my daughter's probably been under anesthesia probably over a hundred times. Wow. Really.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Sheesh.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

And dozens and dozens of surgeries. Yeah, because at one point we were going to Miami every six weeks for an eye exam. From here? Under anesthesia, yeah, here. Yeah, yeah. Wow, we're trying Florida. So, yeah. Okay. It was a lot. So transplant, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:44

I get on the transplant. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Yes. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Mount Sinai. I recently then I learned that you can be on multiple lists. There's not just one.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

A lot of people think there's only one list.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

You would think, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

But here's the caveat. Yes, you could be on other states' lists, but you have to be, what's the word? You have to be, okay, let's just say if you got on a list in Phoenix, you have to know somebody in Phoenix where you can stay there and live there for some time while you go through your treatments. Because even after you get a transplant, you still might have to do dialysis just for a few times to see if the kidney is working, right? So you have to be in that state for you have to know somebody in that state, basically. So yeah, you can get on every list in every state, but you gotta know somebody there. Okay, so I got on a transplant list. Now I'm learning that I have to upkeep a great report card, so to speak. You have to take care of yourself. And so here's the fun part. Maybe about once a year I got a call. Hey, we think we got a match. We call you back. That's like a kid in a candy store. Oh my god, get my bag. They got a they got a match, they got a match. Sorry, this is not gonna be a good one. Ugh. Damn. Yeah. Five years of that. When I finally got the call, it was like one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning. If I could do cartwheels, I would have dartwells. But I was stupid ecstatic. They said, get down here as soon as you can. It's a female, she just died, and we're keeping the organ on ice. Cool. All right, no problem. Call my mom. I was living in Long Island at this time, behind God's back in Mastic Shirley. That's far out Riverhead. That's out there.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

I don't know a lie that well.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

It's out there. It's out there. To go to Mount Sinai. It's about an hour and a half. I think it's an hour and a half drive, if I forget recall. Let me tell you, I got in a car, my pastor's car because I was staying with him. I did like 9,500 all the way to the hospital. I don't care if a trooper got behind me because they out there. I was gonna continue going with a trooper behind me. But here's the stupid part though. When I got to the ER, they put me in the gown and everything, stuck me in a cuticle, you know, with the curtain. Yeah. And I stayed there for hours. I was like to the charges. I say they told me, we know, we know, we you know say, Mr., you know. And I'm like, but they told me they just want me to be there.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

I didn't get the transplant until like eight, nine o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

The doctor was probably still at home next time. Hello before he got. Still sleeping.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Anyway, I got the transplant. I mean, I gave you a little synopsis of what it's like to be on the transplant list. The hopes, the hopes of getting a transplant, you know? And then I finally get it. Let me tell you something. This was hard. And I think you can relate a little bit. Um, because I say a little bit because you're not the patient, but to go home after a major surgery like that, I was by myself. Not to say my mother wasn't there, but she wasn't there when I went home. She lived in Pennsylvania. I lived in Queens still. Mind you, I'm being evicted somehow because I ain't paying my rent. But anyway, let's get to the happy part. You got, I got like 30, 40 pills to take.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

I can barely move. I gotta organize all these pills, some of them like horse pills, and I gotta put it in my organizer so I can take it on time every day, Monday through Sunday. And it was hard being by myself. I was 20 something years old. This was like a hard time in my life. I could just cry because it was really hard. It might not sound like it was really hard.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

I believe you.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

I just thank God because you know how people ask you, will you go back in time and change anything? I always say no. Because everything we went through is because he wanted us to go through it. And if you change something, that means you're not agreeing what he orchestrated for you. I just thank God for the hard times. Yeah. I do. New York toughened us up. It sure did. When I was on dialysis, I was actually living with one of my girlfriends and her family. They took me in, and that's when I got to know this church I was going to in Brooklyn. And so, yo, let me tell you how I met her though, real quick.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

There's a McDonald's downtown Manhattan, it's near Center Street. I remember that. It's near where the courthouse is, you know, all the courthouses are at. And they had a piano in there. So sometime I would go in there and just play a piano. And I'll meet people that way too, right? I met her at McDonald's and I tried kicking into her, whatever. She would laugh at this. Because I remember me like trying to be all cool and whatever, and then I talked about my food steps.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

And she's like, food steps.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Uh-uh, not me. Word. Oh my gosh. But here's the thing, right? I met her. I told her what was going on in my life, and she could have been like anybody else, because I experienced it. People, girls would like shrug me off because I have a normal life. She she she accepted me for who I was. I was living in Queens, right? We started kicking it, dating, whatever. And then I needed to go somewhere. So she talked to her mother, and her mom said I can stay there. And, you know, she said no hanky panky, stuff like that. Respect. They Jamaican, so they ain't trying to hear that. Even though we did our thing. But anyway, you ain't hear that. Sneaky. See. But that's when I met the church. And this is when I got saved. I went to that church, and yeah, that's when I found God. You know, it's funny because as I'm talking about this, it's like it's all coming back to memory. I used to say, why did God do this to me? But it's not, that's not the appropriate question. It's why God allowed this to happen to me. Because He allows things to happen. You know what I mean? And of course I know now because I wouldn't be here if I wasn't, if it wasn't for my trial. So anyway, I was living with them and I was able to get some work. I became an IT technician because one of the brothers from the church, I was I was already inclined with music, right? Working the board, vocal producing and stuff. So I put that to work in the church. They didn't have a sound guy in the church. So I started doing sound at the church. And then I met this guy, brother or something. I forgot his name. Wow. And he had his own IT business. And the days that I didn't do dialysis, I would go to work with him and he would teach me how to do all this wiring, how to make waters, run wires through ceilings. And yeah, I I've done a lot of jobs.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

You sure have. Like you got a heck of a resume.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

I've got a lot of jobs for real.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

But how did you go from that to like cooking?

Finding Purpose Through Food And Networking

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Okay, so there. So, so so yes, yes, yeah. So when I was in Long Island and I was doing dialysis, what am I gonna do with my life? Like, how am I make money? Yeah, I was on social security, right? I was getting SSI and SSD. It wasn't enough money. I was getting like $600 something a month. Yeah. Like, what is that? So somebody said you should start your own catering business. I was like, now, usually when you're here to start a business, you gotta have money. I didn't have no money. So I started advertising. It was called J Von Makers Catering. That's what I called it.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

And you were still up in Long Island.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Long Island, right? That's when I started the that's where the passion grew for cooking. I already had when I was a little kid, watching my mom, grandmother, onions, and stuff like that. I love the smell of onions, caramelizing. But it wasn't then it was somebody who said you should start your own catering business because I love cooking and I will sell food with the church too. So that's where the cooking started, right? But it wasn't professional. Dad, you're taking me down memory. After college, I started working at a temp agency and I finagled my way to working in different restaurants, corporate restaurants, different corporate kitchens is like Canterfix Jerough, Fair Child Publications, like corporate businesses that have their own kitchens, basically. I worked at the World Trade Center, Canna Fitzgerald Financial Institution.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

The original World Trade Center?

SPEAKER_00 35:54

Yes. Wow. On the 101st floor, I kid you not, I still have my ID. I stopped working at Canterfix Jerough in August of 2011. Was it 11?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

You mean 01?

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

Before it happened. Before it happened. August. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

And when it happened, I was like, I could have still been working there. That's a whole nother story. My mother worked down there. She was there. Wow. Anyway, that's a whole nother story. That's where the passion started growing for cooking. I didn't take it serious. I didn't want to be a chef, Lizette. I just like cooking. I just want to share my food with people. So one year I was selling fried turkeys to the nurses, and I was like, I had mad orders. I was like, I was delivering turkeys all around New York City. I was like, wow, they like my turkeys, Lisette. Yeah. So uh it didn't go so well with the meal prep. Like, it would get me frustrated because the nurses would, they would buy like Chinese food down the street for $25, $30 for lunch and dinner, but they don't want to support my business. Like, I don't understand. But anyway, when I got here, that's when it grew into something. I became this award-winning celebrity chef. The only reason why the celebrity hanged on to my name, I didn't name myself that is because when I was in New York, I was already working with celebrities with the Bad Boy Entertainment, uh, What's Hot in Hip Hop, the media company, I was doing interviews. I used to do interviews. I was a correspondent for What's Hot in Hip Hop. And that's when I was like, yo, if I could do radio, I love doing interviews. Yeah. Love. I had the energy. Like, what? What up? What's Hot in Hip Hop is a media company. We would go out to red carpets, events, and do interviews for a lot of showcases, events, whatever was happening. It was my job to get us out there. So I was like a PR to this company. That's when world star hip-hop was becoming more popular. So our acronym, W-H-I-H-H, was very close to World Star Hip Hop. And maybe that's what caught the eye of some people. We weren't getting invited to anywhere. And I was doing interviews with mad celebrities, Rick Ross, and and and I mean, I'm talking about like I can go down the line, I can show you pictures, mad. And so I used that. I use that to pull who I am into the cooking world. So I would talk to managers, PRs, I'd be like, yo, when you're an artist in town, you need food in the green room, you know, before they go on stage, whatever, let me do it. And that's how I got to do it. Stage 48, stage 45, it's a club. I don't know if they still open, but it was a club that I went to a lot where a lot of artists would perform, and I would be able to cook for them. And I like total and LL. And I'm like, yo, all these people I was cooking for, Case, Mace, no, Case, Case. Oh, foot. Yeah, it was Case. Not Mace. I was Case. You know, I was yo, I would get their numbers, and you know what I'm saying? I would network. I'm a network king. And that's how I got the celebrity status because I was feeding them already. So one day, a PR company in a magazine called Rising Stars Magazine did a competition, a poll, and it was like Celebrity Chef of the Year. I won it. I won it. I was like, ooh, I can use that.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Celebrity Chef. Award winning celebrity chef. So that's when I got my first award. I I was we did it at this event where what's her name? Hip hop. She's hip hop. They did a movie on her. Anyway, she got her award the same thing, and we took pictures a lot. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

There's so many people.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Female. Not many names. They, long story short, that's when I got my first award. And then when I came here, nobody knew me. But I still got a lot of followers on social media. So now I gotta work my way in in the state. This big old state, Florida.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

And what brought you here again? You the girl.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

The girl. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

But see, see, see, let me let me I don't know if we finished that part.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

I didn't finish it. Let me let me let me finish that. But I don't want to give credit to the wrong thing. God gets the glory.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

Right? Yes. I wasn't chasing after the tail, as my pastor would say. It was God that brought me here. See, God uses different things and situations to get you where you got to get to. Because I because years before that happened, my pastor had prophesied over my life. And he said, there's gonna be a pitch in a road, a fork, and you're gonna have to make the right decision. God's gonna put you in a situation where you have to make the right choice. I didn't know what he meant. So from that day on, I was like, should I make a right or should I make a left? At the corner, you know? I'm thinking layman's way, you know, humanetically. Yeah. It was that pitch in the road was Pennsylvania. I say that because when I made that pit stop in Pennsylvania, remember I told you about that? I met a girl. Mind you, I had a girl in Florida already. I was sending her money, went to go see her maybe once a month. I met this girl in Pennsylvania. Kicked it right away. Oh my God. Like, boom, pow, pow. We was like in love. She got pregnant. She got pregnant and she said she wanna have my baby. Now, if you know me, Lizette, I'm a man that wants a baby so bad to this very day. I want a family. I'm a family guy. Every woman I've ever dated always has kids. Always. That's a whole nother conversation. So that's the fork in the road. And I didn't know this until years later. Of course. That's not how God works. He doesn't write it down and make it plain for you and say, this is it. I had to choose whether I was gonna stay in Pennsylvania with this baby, I was gonna go to Florida. She knew that I had a life in Florida. She knew that's where I wanted to go. I told her, come, come with me. She said, no, her life was in Pennsylvania. And I said, I don't want to be on long-distance baby daddy. That's not what I want. And you know what happened. I can't say, but you know what happened.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

So she doesn't have the baby no more. Silly her. She married somebody a couple of months after that. And she said it was my fault because she really wanted me. So she was going through something. And I ended up in Florida. I think God used the other woman to get me here. I don't know. I always say to myself, if had I stayed in Pennsylvania, would I be as successful as I am today? No matter what, God is still good, right? But I just can't imagine. Here? Like, Pennsylvania is a small state too. And I tried my business there. I did. It didn't work that well. Granted, I ain't know nobody. But I think God wanted me here. And I'm not saying I'm gonna close the back door. I'm not saying that God wanted us to get rid of a baby. I never said that. And I'm not insinuating that. At the fork in the road, I chose Florida. And let me tell you, Florida's been uphill since then. Even during COVID, I Yo, let me tell you real quick. I hate talking a lot. Am I talking too much?

SPEAKER_02 41:56

No, you're good, but we gotta start.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Okay, I got you.

COVID Boom And Cooking For The NBA

SPEAKER_02 41:59

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

I call Avid Health because I stopped working at Avid Health. I worked at Grand Bohemia. I got laid off at the Graham Bowl during COVID, right? Because the restaurants are closing. And I called Avid Health. I was like, can I come back? I want to help. Because that's the type of person I am. They was like, no, we're on a hiring freeze. You can't. Okay, cool. I'm now living my life. I'm the chef of the NBA bubble. That was huge. I was making good money, dinners every week. Because you know, restaurants are closing, then everybody's hiring me to do dinners.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

And I'm making at least $10,000 a month. I ain't never seen that type of money in my life. Avan Health calls me back. No. No, thank you. I'm not interested. I'm making more money than I ever did in my life. I'm doing it. It wasn't just about the money. Let me close the back door.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Yeah. I was having fun. Yeah. I was growing a company. The NBA was just by itself. Let me tell you this quick, real funny story. I don't watch sports. I don't know who they are. I mean, yeah, you know who, you know, the major players are, right? But I don't watch sports. And I'm like, so I'm cooking for these players. I'm like, okay, cool. Calcusma, the Lakers. I was cooking for the Lakers and some of the other players from the other teams. I should have had my ring because I fed them. That's why they won the champion. I'm going to put it out there right now. You hear me? Where's my ring?

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Yes, your food motivated. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

And that's when I started watching sports. You know why I never watch sports? Because I'm not like the other guys. I can't keep up with who's trading this and that. They're not paying my bills. Why am I keeping up with sports? And then when they was paying my bills, I started I started watching it. I want to see who's playing good. Like, am I feeding him good? What up? You know? Yeah. So that was a funny part. But anyway, I skyrocketed. And I'm gonna give kudos to Whiz Do. There is a lawyer in Orlando. Her name is Alicia Adams. She does criminal law. Her husband is a retired NBA player. I cook for them. There's another story that goes back with that, but I don't want to go back. But he hired me. And since he hired me to cook for her, I think it was her birthday or Mother's Day. Yo, when she put me on her social media, what? Yo, Lizette, I was like, everybody knew me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yo mamas, they should have. And and and let me say, your food is good. I'm so glad I finally did.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Thank you. I'm so glad you did.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Finally.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

It's been years. It's been years. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

It was way overdue. Yes. And my apologies on that, but you know I got a crazy thing. It's so good, yeah. You know my life is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

So my God.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

In due time. Guns is the one time gun.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

It was so good. I honestly have not stopped thinking about it. And I can't wait to go back. And I was hoping to go back this weekend, but I may have to wait till next weekend.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Those lobster bits, Chris.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Oh my gosh. I tried the jerk ones. I want to try the regular ones next.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

But yeah, so I guess really quick, since we're talking about it, let's plug uh your spot real quick.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Oh, the restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

Yeah, for those who are here listening and local.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Can I tell you? I never wanted a restaurant.

unknown 44:46

I bet.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

I heard the stories, chefs killing themselves, critics. It gets to you. It really does. Because it did get to me when I first started the restaurant. What people say can hurt you. It really can. But I got over that. But at first, when I was I was cooking out of home and I outgrew my house, cooking all this for events and parties and stuff, it was too much. So I was looking for a commissary kitchen. Long story short, I didn't want it. But years later, it fell into my lap again. New owners bought it. And then I'm sitting in this office, my office, right? At the restaurant. Before it was a restaurant, it was just my kitchen for cooking. And I was renting it out to other people to cook as well. But one day I was sitting on my desk and I was like, yo, I got all this equipment behind me, right? This kitchen I'm still paying for and it's not being used. God, what am I gonna do with this? How can I turn this into income? God said, and the Holy Spirit told me, use the rod and the staff that I gave you. He gave it to Moses. Moses was like, What are we gonna do with the link at the water, right? He told Moses to spread the sea. Use the rod and the staff that I gave you. I equipped you what I equipped you with for a reason. That's a word by itself. And I say, okay, let's start the restaurant. One of my old clients, Al Devaughan, they was pitching in. They do drinks and mamosis, they said maliers. And they want the help as well. They saw the vision. We started on Sundays, and as the demand grew, we went to Saturday and Sundays. I didn't want to do the second Sunday because I didn't want to compete with downtown Sanford, the food trucks. And I wanted to go to church still, right? The man was growing. All right. Let's open up on the second weekend. And then I started opening up on Thursdays and Fridays. I was going back and forth. There's no damn good fried fish out here. I don't know where you get your fish from, but I really haven't been sold. That fried fish down with I did a poll. People saying that spot, I ain't gonna say the name. They used to say in that spot in Orlando, it's in the hood. That's what y'all call good fried fish? Yo, I kid you not. My ex-girlfriend told me, my ex-fiance, she said you should start selling fish. The next day, Friday, I was selling fish. Fried Fish Friday. That's what I called it. So then Fried Fresh Friday became popular. So people was like, all right, can we how do we get fish when they were at brunch? So I say, let's collab both menus. Long story short, we opened Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Sundays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. last season at 3 p.m. Two reservations, elevated eats. It wasn't called Elevated East before, but we call it Elevated East because that's what we're about. We're about elevating your experience.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

Yeah. And I'm gonna put the website in the description to the podcast so people could check it out. So you serve Central Florida or just parts of Central Florida, like for the catering portion.

SPEAKER_00 47:13

Catering's oh, I I man, I'll tell you, I went to California already. Oh, somebody flew me out. I I go as where the money goes.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

Okay, you hear that. I got people listening from all over the United States right now.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

I'm waiting somebody fly me out to the where I can get my my passport stand. That's what I'm saying. But that's that's that's money.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

Well wide. That's gonna be the next part of your label for Elevator Eats worldwide. Oh my gosh. Well, we've talked a lot about your journey, man, and I'm so glad you shared that

Florida Life Wins And New York Things Missed

SPEAKER_02 47:40

with me today. And I do want to tap into for the sake of the podcast. Like, Florida's been good to you now, right? So I want to know some specific things you actually like about Florida. What do you like to do when you're not cooking?

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Honestly, I'm so I'm at the discipline level where, and I say this because a lot of people don't, when they're entrepreneurs, they are business minded all day, all night. And I have a mentorship program as well where I mentor other quote unquote chefs that want to start their own business. You have to learn how to separate your life from your business, or else you won't have no mental stability. And four o'clock, done. I don't care who's calling the phone. That landlord could be calling my phone and I don't answer it. He called me today and I didn't answer it. Why? Because I'm off on Mondays. I'm not talking about work on Mondays. Yeah. Right? I like to go to the movies, I like to go bowling. I like to do outdoor and indoor stuff. I'm just a fun guy, man. I'm just, you can go shoot pool if you want, you know? But the thing that frustrates me is the heat. No, but besides that, because I would have never moved to Florida. It had to be guard me moving here. Me and heat, we fight. We fight all day. Yo, yo, the thing that frustrates me besides the heat is the restaurant's close too early. You know, in New York, yeah, when you get out of the movie theater at one o'clock, you know you can go get a slice of pizza or something.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

Yeah. Here? Everything like taps out at 11. Yeah, you find a spot that's like 2 a.m. or something.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Yeah, but that's the thing that frustrates me here. It was like, where do you eat at?

SPEAKER_02 49:04

Do you remember your first This Ain't New York moment? Was it looking for food like that? Or did you have something else?

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Still gets me. Yo, it still gets me. I moved to Deltona. A lot of people move to Deltona, I realize, because Deltona is cheaper, right? But it's not New York. So it's like they move out of Deltona. It's too quiet. You hear the gunshots, you hear animals, whatever. My first sign was Walmart was too far. You know, in New York, you won't go to the Delhi, it's right downstairs. It's of course the street. You wanna get a sandwich, you know? Yeah. You won't get a sandwich and a drink. Walmart was 30 minutes away from where I lived at in Del Tona. I was like, I'm not living somewhere where I gotta drive 30 minutes to get to Walmart. Right. You don't know there's no bodega. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They don't even know what a hero is here. I was in line at Publix asking for a hero. They was like, what? I saw the hero, you know? They was like, pogey? No, I don't know what a pogey is. But yeah, that's when I got depressed. I went through a small depression when I'm younger. It's a culture shock.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

It is for everyone. Yes. That's why I started this podcast. Because like I told you before the show, and it's in my first episode of like some of my experiences, but I was young. It wasn't even my child movie.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

So it's like, what made you move? You know, that's why I wanted this podcast. I want to get in people's heads. Like, what made you movie? Like, I understand it now. My life turned out fine. My life is blessed. I found my husband here. I'm good. See? My radio career here. Look at you. You know, I'm I'm listening. But it took a while to realize that. And I know that there's people here, even as adults, they go through this transition.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Culture shock is definitely money shock.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Money shock.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

The people that drive here, they don't know how to drive. What you turn your heads and lights on for? Get over in the right lane. What you in the left lane for?

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Anyway. So what do you miss about New York? I mean, other than the convenience of bodegas and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

The food. The food. Yo, whenever hear somebody go into New York, I'll be like, yo, give me some Chinese food. Give me a sliced pizza. Give me a sandwich. Give me bacon, egg, and cheese. Oh, yeah. Now you know bacon cheese is on my menu, right? Yes, I know it's a cheese.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

I saw that all after the fact. I'm like, I'm gonna have to get it one day.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

You gotta get the bacon egg and cheese. Of course, we elevate it. Of course. But it's still a bacon egg and cheese. Yeah. I put it on a cabata bread now. It's okay. It's so good. I eat it like once a week.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

But you do.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Yeah. It's the conveniences, though, that I really miss. The food definitely I miss. Have you been back? I've been back. I haven't been back probably about maybe three years now. I haven't been back. I don't miss it like that anymore, though. Yeah. Because when I go back, two days, I'm done. I gotta go back home. Too much. Yeah, two days too much. Yeah. For real. The traffic, crazy. And I'm not getting on no damn dirty train. I'm not getting on a dirty bus.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

I love getting on the dirty trains and the dirty bus. I love it all.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Yo, I'm not getting on that, Doc. For real. I'm too spoiled now.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

So you're over it in two days, so you don't really miss much. You're good. You finished New York.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

You feel good.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

I always say if I go back to New York, it's either because somebody's paying my rent and they're giving me this awesome job that I can't refuse. But the key thing is they're paying my rent. I'm not paying rent in New York. Well, I'm almost paying it here in Florida, but still, it's all the taxes that they take out. Nah, I'm not, I'm down, I'm not down for it. But if I ever got sick, God forbid, because I know I'm covered by the blood. If I ever got sick, I say I'm going back to New York.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Healthcare is better than it.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Healthcare is much better.

SPEAKER_02 52:21

What? Okay, point out a real quick difference.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

Medicaid, Medicare. I'm getting it right now. I'm getting it. Here?

SPEAKER_02 52:26

You have to fight for it. You gotta fight for it.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

You gotta prove. Hello, I'm on dialysis. You still gotta prove you you need it. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

Man, I've I've enjoyed having you on the show today. Like I've learned a lot about you. Like I knew you on the surface, you know. We've we've met several times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, we've had plenty of interactions before today.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:45

And um, yeah, now I just feel like I know you so much better. Like you're my BFF now.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

So sit down and talk.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Done. You my BFF.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

We just missing the coffee.

unknown 52:52

Right?

SPEAKER_00 52:53

Or the matcha.

SPEAKER_02 52:54

Oh my god. Chef Javon. Any other thoughts?

Seven Years Medicine Free And A Warning

SPEAKER_02 52:58

Any other last words you want to throw in?

SPEAKER_00 53:00

I didn't tell you the caveat to my journey.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

This is really, really the icing sprinkles, Mr. Softy Sprinkles.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

Yummy.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

I had a transplant, right? And you know, after any type of transplant, you gotta take medications for the rest of your life. I am seven years medicine free.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

Seven years medicine free.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

And you've done this with nutrition as well or just faith.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

This is through God.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

Amen. Oh, for real. That's beautiful. No, really.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

I did a shut-in at the church that I met, told y'all about. I did a, I think it was three days, I shut myself in the church. And that shut-in, I woke up with God and I went to bed with God. And it was no bed, it was the floor. God had revealed to me that he was going to heal me. That's it. And I didn't know that this is why I was on dialysis, right? I didn't know that he was going to, well, do it this way. I thought he was just gonna revive the dead kidneys and it's gonna be this whole miracle. But it was cost, how many years later, he revealed to me I didn't have to take the medications anymore. That's the long story short. There is a longer version. And anytime I give this testimony, I always gotta close the back door. That my testimony is my testimony. It doesn't mean anybody else on dialysis, yes, you can love God. You really gotta hear his voice to walk on faith like this. Because the devil did attack me in multiple ways to make me not stand on God's word. Because if you're not strong in faith, the devil could surely knock you off that cliff like he tried to do with Jesus in the wilderness. He really tried. Almost did. But I had to stand firm on his God's word. Seven years. I don't have to take no medicine. Not only that, when I go get my blood test done, because I do still get checkups, if I don't tell a doctor that I've ever had a transplant, they wouldn't be able to know. There's no trace. Unless, of course, they palpate, which they touching. But the blood results, it's in a normal range. Not a transplant range.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

That's God.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

That's God.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Isn't God amazing?

SPEAKER_02 54:54

That is God. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Yes. And we're talking about this, I don't know when this is coming out, but this month is organ donation month. It's when we promote, you know, I told you that the other day. Yes. And then I think next month is Men's Health Awareness Month. But yeah, God is good. I always gotta close the back door with that. I always, because I've heard people come to me and say, oh my God, such a great testimony. I want to do the same thing. So I stopped taking medicine. You can't do that. You just can't. That's mine. It's personal. I mean, it's for everybody to know, but you just can't take yourself off medicine.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

You gotta hear from God.

SPEAKER_00 55:27

Yes. This one guy came to me in the emergency room in Mount Sinai. He said, Man, I heard your story on the radio. It was so inspiring. I took myself off the medicine. That's why he was there. His doctor told him to go to the ER. He said, Your levels are off. Your kidney's rejecting. But that's why I gotta close the back door. That is my testimony.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Well, thank you for sharing it. Of course. I'm so glad that you were able to come on and share that with my audience. Because, you know, you're you're New Yorker now live in the floor, you know. And I had to share. Yeah, I had to bring you on.

SPEAKER_00 55:55

She got the New York accent. I'm not gonna say who she sounds like. I'll know. I'll say you sound like Angie Martinez. No, she sounds like you. There you go. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 56:06

Our careers came up at the same time. For those who may have heard me and thought that. Look, we were both young. She's older than me by a few years, but you know, our careers pretty much was side by side. Hers in New York and mine's in Florida. So I was not influenced by it. Let's do it to say.

SPEAKER_00 56:22

You should invite her down to your show.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

So yeah, I don't know. You make the call for me.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

I'll be a PR. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

You got experience. See.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

See? I'm telling you. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Oh, Chef Chavon, thank you so much for joining from Apple to Oranges. Thank you so much for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. It's been a while since I did an interview. It's been a few years. I was starting to think I was not important anymore.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Ah, look at you.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

But I'm now cooking, you know, since I got here, I wanted to get in the circle of getting back to telling my testimony because that's the mandate I have in my life. That is my purpose-driven life. It's not cooking, it's not traveling to cook for people. My purpose is to tell people what God is doing through me and still continues to do. And I've been blessed to be connected with a company called Our Legacy. They are part of Advent Health. Their main focus, their job is to spread their awareness, organ donation. And they have their own vehicles where they transport organs. But I got connected with them and they're well connected. And I've had like three speaking engagements this month alone to tell my testimony. This is what I love to do. If I can do this every day, I would do it.

SPEAKER_02 57:29

I know how you feel about cooking. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

I don't have to cook. I'll cook at home. Come have dinner with me at home. I would do it every day. That's my mandate. I told God I would climb the highest mountain to tell him what he's done for me. I've been on the news, I've been on radio today, I had articles. I was starting to feel like I wasn't important anymore. Oh, you always important.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

So when God gives you a story, he's gonna give you places to tell it.

SPEAKER_00 57:50

Yes, many platforms.

Where To Follow And Question Of The Day

SPEAKER_02 57:52

Besitos to you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode with Chef Javon. Scroll through the description where you could click the link to follow Chef Javon. You can follow me too at Lizette Perez and send us a message. You can leave a comment, a text message, and even a voice message. That's right. I can make you a part of the show. Answer my question of the day. What was the most shocking thing you experienced when you arrived in Florida?

Bonus Backstory On Medical Career Path

SPEAKER_00 58:51

So the pastor I met, he gave me an opportunity. The opportunity was to help and him and his family with force the kids. So they will force the parents. And I figured it was a great way to start all over. I I I I grew fond of this pastor. I admired him a lot. And so I moved out with the pastor and the family out on Long Island, helped them. I was they called a backup. That's what they call it in the industry. So I became a backup and I cooked for them. I disciplined them, you know, helped them with homework and stuff. Almost like a nanny.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

But I took them to their appointments. That's what the backup is. But anyway, that's the transplant life. And you know, I tell you this, Lizette, when I was on dialysis, this is what wanted me to get into the medical field. Sitting there watching these health professionals do what they do seemed very intriguing. And to me, I was like, I respect that, you know. I want to do that. I want to help people too. And I like the way they was helping me. And so I went to school to be a medical assistant out in Long Island. And I love that. I love taking blood and stuff, phlebotomy. And everybody was so amazed at my fish jelly, you know, because it's not something you get to see every day. And that is when no, no, no. I got married. Moved back. Yeah, I got married, moved to Brooklyn, and I got a job at Mount Sinai Hospital, which is where I got the transplant at. It wasn't that part wasn't orchestrated by me. It just happened. I got a job as a nurse assistant, and I loved it. One day, I was doing overtime. They call it a one-to-one. Out here, they call it uh bigger act. New York they call it a one-to-one. You know, you know what bigger act is. Yes, I do. So I was doing overtime watching a patient in the ER. And I was like, I love the ER, the rush, the drilling, the sickness, and I was like, I want to work here. Yeah. Talked to the administrator. I was like, yes, I really want to work there. What do I gotta do? I I tried to build a relationship with him, and and to cut through the red tape, because the manager didn't want to hire me. I remember she lives out here now, too. But they hired me to be a tech. And I started going to school for nursing because I became a nurse tech. And that's how I worked in the ER. I love the freaking ER.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

Like I see. Freaking amazing. And I'm glad this was one of them. Chef Javon, thank you so much for being a guest on from apple to oranges.